Over 200,000 Petitioners Slam Sickening COI-Eritrea Report

More than 10,000 Eritreans and their friends from across Europe inundated Geneva on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, to protest against the politically driven agenda of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights and to condemn the COI-Eritrea for its preposterous conclusion that “crimes against humanity have been committed in Eritrea since 1991.”

This finding flies against the reality on the ground in Eritrea and is a total fabrication. Equating Eritrea’s National Service with enslavement not only is disgraceful, but it also adds insult to injury to the millions of men and women of African origin that were and continue to be victimized by the crimes of slavery in the Americas.

The protestors also submitted more than 200,000 petitions from 81 countries across the globe to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Delegates of the protestors also submitted a memorandum supported with a petition of more than 200,000 Eritreans and friends from around the globe. The petitions were collected through the effort of ordinary Eritreans young and old from all walks of life at the grassroots level. The petitions were collected through paper and online drive. These petitions came from 6 continents, 81 countries, and over a thousand cities and localities. These are in addition to the nearly 46,000 testimonies that were submitted to the Commission in January 2016. Sadly, the Commission, through its own admission, had received about 45,000 submissions but it only read a sample of 5%, ignoring the 95% submissions amounting to hundreds of pages of testimonies in four languages.

The Memorandum underscored that

“Eritrea, like all other developing countries, has many challenges and limitation, however, none that can even remotely amount to ‘crimes against humanity’. There is neither credible evidence nor ‘reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in Eritrea since 1991.’ Moreover, there is no individual or institution in Eritrea that ‘persistently, or ‘systematically’ attacks the civilian population. At the same time Eritrea doesn’t have ‘crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, other inhumane acts, persecution, rape and murder as the Commission tells the world it found.”

Dismayed by the Commission’s action of not reading over 42,000 testimonies, the memorandum stated that it was not only the voice of Eritreans that was neglected but according to the Atlantic Council’s Bronwyn Bruton, the Commission had also “refused to consider the academic literature on Eritrea; refused to use press reports; refused to speak with experts who’d traveled recently to the country; refused to speak to UN staff and Western diplomats inside the country.”

Dr. Tanja R. Müller of the University of Manchester adds that many people

“who live, have lived or continue to visit Eritrea, have multiple connections within the country and could have contributed to the COI’s understanding. They were deliberately ignored, and the result is a document that describes a country many Eritreans do not recognize.”

Furthermore Müller exposes that the lies against Eritrea was the work of western lobbying companies who “recruited by human rights activists who have their own means of advocacy and persistence, and for example hire public lobbying companies in order to spread their narrative of Eritrea (I was for a while bombarded by emails from such a company with sensational news until I contacted them and asked to be removed from their list). … What is harder to justify and exemplifies the flaws in the COI report is the fact that all additional experts that were consulted came from the spectrum of human rights advocates in a broad sense, and included hardly anybody with recent first-hand experience of Eritrea.”

The Memorandum underlined that the two-pronged (COI + Special Rapporteur) assault against Eritrea under the cover of human rights is actually part of an insidious two-step design launched seven years ago to:

i) disarm the country ii) delegitimize its institution of national defense, iii) demoralize its defense forces, and iv) for a good measure, depopulate the nation of its fighting-age children to change the balance forces in the Horn of Africa in favor of the Ethiopian minority regime. The ultimate goal of this anti-Eritrea campaign is to reverse Eritrea’s sovereignty.

The appointment of the Special Rapporteur and establishment of the COI-Eritrea are thus a continuation of an orchestrated 18-year long political campaign that seeks to demonize and delegitimize Eritrea in the international arena, and erode the final and binding Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s delimitation and demarcation decisions.

The Memorandum concludes by pointing that “fundamental failures characterized the Reports and are based on false premises and allegations made by dubious individuals and groups, asylum seekers and coerced refugees” and “any support to a fraudulent COI-Eritrea findings reached through a fraudulent methodology is a disservice to the Eritrean people’s attempt to live in dignity and liberty and is ultimately against the very human rights the UN Human Rights Council is trying to promote. Adding, it said, the Council should not allow itself to be “influenced by people and countries that have an axe to grind against Eritrea” and urged its members to reject the biased findings of the COI-Eritrea and to terminate its politically-motivated mandate.

More than 10,000 Eritreans and friends from across Europe inundated Geneva on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, to protest against COI preposterous report and submit a petition of more than 200,000 Eritreans in addition to the 46,000 testimonies that was submitted in January 2016.

No now they know Eritreans all over the world are ready any time to defend the ሓላል መሬት. And they do it wich flying colors.

These fools, especially the handful HASUS that we see roaming in the streets of the West;what do they think we Eritreans are?

It is time to accept we are not Libyans who burned the country to the ground by bringing ISIS and AQAIDA. Yes we are not Libyans who burned their home to the ground. Take a look at that what they have done Libya.

Do I need to talk about Syria? It has be 5 years since the Syrians have been burning their home to the ground. It has been 5 years since the Syrians burned, killed, and murdered their next door neighbor, his very own own brother and what they got. They got millions of Syrian women and children scattered all over Europe.

Shall I talk about Iraq, shall I talk about Yemem, and shall I talk about Somalia, and shall I talk about Ethiopia? You know for these are the very countries who are buning down to the ground; all due the evil schemes of the WEST. But do not blame the WEST, just blame these very same people who are killing each other.

How about Eritrea and the Eritreans. Here they are defending the HALAL Meriet with flying colors. Just take a look at what they have done and said in Geneva. It got to be over our “dead body” if they think they can reduced Eritrea to what we have seen all around Eritrea.

No body said we are a democracy! Eritrea never claimed to be one i think you are confusing us with our neighbors! ትዝብትስ 100% ምርጫ አሸነፍን ሴባልና ያለም መሳቕቂያ ስትሆን ነው. ግን ትንሽ አታፍርም? አባቶችህ ሲተርቱ የሌባ አይን አውጣ…….ቅል ራስ!

How can you guys expect the UN to believe in 100,000 protestors and 200,000+ petitioners, when they have 500 precious weyane served “witnesses” they HAVE to Believe in? Don´t you guys know that logic and truth has no Place at the UN? At the UN, only might is right.

Majority of Eritreans who dismissed the COIE report are the young Eritrean generations and this is a sign of Eritrean people culture heritage. They are following the footsteps of their grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. Never kneel down!!! Proud to be part of them!

In every society in history there is always a respected difference in opinion, some may say true others say false, some may say black, some others may say white, at the end of the day a winner or a loser is declared based on the evidence they brought up to justify their argument. Here in Eritrea, it is always unique, the poisonous slogan such as ‘Deki hade libi’, is effectively discouraging them from developing a critical sense of thinking. Some may believe shouting in the streets of Geneva will erase well documented facts in relation of the behavior and action of the gov in Eritrea. History cannot and will not be erased by shouting demonstration and yelling. The fact will always remain the fact. Is there anyone who believes detaining people without trail for decades is the course justice Eritreans should be following for? If your answer is yes, you must then be an enemy of the country and the people indeed. No matter the degree of crime they might have committed to any one any time, they must be tried for their crimes and their sentence must be made known to the public. if you insist the status quo in Eritrea in terms of justice is fine, i think those who gave their lives including my two brothers for freedom and justice of this country would feel betrayed so badly.

Never said “only my brothers”, perhaps you should read it back again. This evince once again your desperate attempt to vilify people, you would never be able to justify your unconditional love to one man in Eritrea when challenged. Right?

Sahlemariam, My love is unconditional for every one Eritrea and if you are one it includes you, too. I would rather doubt it that you know love.Yes we’re one through and through from the bottom to the top. You on the other hand claim to be for legal preceding and at the same time accept accusations as fact when it suits you. You either are playing dumb to advance your narrow mind-view or are riddled with unhealthy level of hate for the man and state of Eritrea. You come across as someone who has emotional distress and a victim of stereotypes and prejudice. Sitting on the veranda of Cinema Roma sipping on a hot macchiato, across me, I see people of all ages and gender making their court appearance and settling their differences through an impartial judgment at the high court of the central region,. Your case may be divorce, dispute as to what belongs to who or of a criminal nature-stealing, lying, forgery or whatever-all are settled by a court’s decision or through mediation; all across the land. But you would rather go to Australia and be tried by kangaroo court? Because you dislike or even hate one person you are failing to connect one and one. I don’t honestly know where you live but to make such a statement as every court case and proceeding are printed at the days closing and broadcasted at primetime is simply outlandish. Time to grow up.

That is you? what did you feel you said in response to my comments? Nothing, other than shouting and yelling as usual. I am an Eritrean like with the will and courage to contribute something positive to the wider population as opposed to a handful folks in power. Which political leaders on Earth are immune from criticism apart from leaders in Eritrea? In Eritrea, criticizing the gov is automatically considered as taboo and will lead you being thrown to jail. God bless you-my country- Eritrea!

Eritrea is getting out of control in any way it is looked at. Ethiopia, a country in the region that has some economic, political, and military leverage over its neighbors’ is just watching Eritrea’s problem in one prism, which is how it is affecting Ethiopia and how effective Eritrea is going to be in its effort to destabilize Ethiopia. Ethiopia, who send a peace keeping mission to neighboring countries in Africa, has failed to see and take action in collaborations with the international community against a menace that is setting up a trend to destabilize the region peace that Ethiopia tries to maintain. Ethiopia just trying to destabilize Eritrea as much as Eritrea tries to destabilize Ethiopia will make the political, economic, and the military structure of Eritrea to collapse. Ethiopia military cannot be hunter just in its back yard that kills intruder all the time but the military should go out to the wilderness to locate where the intruder is coming and destroy its breeding ground if not the army is going to have a lot of sleepless night anticipating the intruder that changes its behavior to elude the property owner. More importantly Eritrea’s military grade weapon proliferations should be a reginal concern and should be addressed on that level.

What seems to have gone over your head, is the fact that, it’s not whether the Eritrean govt is righteous or not but who from the outside has the moral right to criticize it, let alone condemn it. The one free from sin, cast the first stone!

No body is saying the status quo in Eritrea, be it of justice or otherwise, is fine. Even the Eritrean government delegation acknowledges that; if you watch Yemane Gebrab’s response to the human rights counsel yesterday. The question is, how do we address that or deal with it? I support the right of any Eritrean to question and to hold the government accountable for any indiscretions made by any government or military personnel in any state affairs, social or political. However, the question remains how much of our liberty as people and as a nation are we willing to give to this foreign entities to determine our own future? didn’t our brothers fought and martyred, Including your two brothers – God bless their souls, against all odds to grant us to determine our own future? Don’t you think we are betraying them if we are to let anybody, I don’t care under what cover that entity comes, determine our future? After all didn’t our brothers paid the ultimate price fighting these same agencies yesterday, then what changed today? Don’t you think what they didn’t achieve yesterday overtly, are trying to achieve it today covertly? Against the background of what happened in the middle east and north africa how could we be gullible enough to believe what these people have is good in their hearts?

Having said all that, I encourage every Eritrean to hold the Eritrean Government accountable for all, call it crime or indiscretion, that happened and may occur in the future. It is every Eritreans right that was granted to all Eritreans by our martyrs. We should not let any one take that right away from us. If we are going to decide whether the EG is criminal or not, or whether it stays or goes should be ours (ERITREANS) and ours alone. Any sort of collective punishment despite any justification or disguise donned upon it is a crime against humanity (the suffering of millions of Iraqis, Syrians….). Let the people of any free nation determine their own future without any interference, as any interference is usually clouded by the greed, unrealistic ambition, and total indifference of the interfere that will not benefit the target nation.

Dear Jo, forget about holding the gov accountable for their action. No one in Eritrean has ever aasked as to why people get detained for years without trail, and you know it as much as i do. It is simply impossible for Eritreans at home to challenge the gov for its action cos they know what is waiting for them. You seemed to be worried too much about being ruled or taken by foreigners, well, do you remember when the same un was invited to Eritrea in 1993 during the referendum to endorse the country as independence and sovereignty of ccountry . If Eritrea doesn’t respect what the un says why would then it abjure its membership? Or come up with concrete evidence to convince the world that no crime is perpetrated. What makes me so perplexed is why would you defend people in power instead of the people? Who will ask the gov for those journalists and politicians who have been detained for decades without any trail? Do you know what crime they comitted or you simply believe what the gov tell you?

Selam Daniel, I don’t believe it is impossible for people to rise up and demand their rights against any adversary. It may take time, but it is not impossible. What makes you think if Eritreans rose up and fought against all odds, including against the same institution that you think is going to grant us human rights, despite itself proving to be otherwise, to demand and achieve their right of self-determination yesterday it is impossible today? I believe and trust the good sense of judgment of the Eritrean people. The UN was invited to witness the desire of the Eritrean people – the desire that was against the desire of the UN. All Eritreans should be proud and maintain the determination and willingness to stand up for their right, and I for one believe the Eritrean people will rise up for righteousness. I also believe that there is no more powerful force in the world than the desire to be free and independent of any people. Once people rise, there is no political or military machine, however big and powerful, that can stop that movement (General Degaul of france, papadopoulos of Greece….).

I am not worried that Eritrea is going to be rulled by any foreign entity, but I worry as Eritrean, you should too if indeed you are Eritrean, in the infringement of my right to determine my own future. Because it is to realize that right we paid a dear price. …It is so precious I am not willing to yield that right to anybody, specially to the UN, that walks like an Angel, it is nothing but a devil.

I never defended any body, specially the people in power, but the Eritrean self determination. If you have a problem with that and/or you are equating them, then it is your problem not mine. The people of Eritrea are asking and demanding an answer against any injustice, including for those who are in detention now, as we speak. And I trust and believe in the good sense and judgement of the Eritrean people more than any other foreign entity or government in this respect.

As Eritrean I will join with any one who is determined enough to fight in the pursuit of justice for all Eritreans in general and those who are in detention in particular. But, I despise those who are willing to sacrifice even a gift as precious as the right for self-determination, so that others to fight for them as they lurk in the shadows thinking they may share on the spoils.

Don’t you think bad governance is what made Eritrea vulnerable? Why do Eritrean people have to suffer because PIA refused to implement the constitution that would have guaranteed people’s rights? Did we get rid off the tyranny of Ethiopia to replace it with our own? Why must our people suffer? It is not too late for the GOE to turn things for the better, but you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Sadly, the suffering of our people will continue.

I won’t worry of the foreigners if only the GOE govern the country justly using democratic principles and a constitutional rule of law. A just governance breeds strong united people that no one will date touch.

Miriam: — Nobody denies that there is no democracy in Eritrea. The leadership in power is still the same EPLF of old. — Nobody denies timely change of leadership in itself is an engine of HOPE and an engine for change. — Nobody denies that Eritreans have been detained and kept behind bars without being charged for years. — Nobody denies that there is a rampant corruption going on in Eritrea in addition to abuse of democratic rights. — Nobody denies that many Eritreans are caught in a never ending cycle of National Service with no end in sight. — Nobody denies that the Eritrean people are VERY angry that they don’t have a say so in running their lives. — Nobody denies that there are no jobs in Eritrea and that is why Eritreans are leaving Eritrea whenever they can.

No Eritrean can deny these facts. However, Eritreans vary in how they approach to redress these grievances:

(1) Some feel (and I fall in this camp), the independence of Eritrea is under continual attack by the historical enemies of Eritrea, namely Ethiopia, the United States and Zionism, and therefore it is best for the survival of Eritrea as an independent country that it be under the military leadership of the EPLF for as long as possible. This camp feels Eritrea has to survive first AS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY in order to practice democracy and not die practicing democracy. In other words, the enemies of Eritrea are always ready to strike at every juncture in order to undermine the very foundations of Eritrea and dismantle Eritrea as an independent country. Evidences of these are the sanctions on Eritrea that are in place and the many fabricated lies of the UN Monitoring Group (remember the 2000 Eritrean soldiers that evaporated to the Heavens in 2006?) and this current report by this COI, which is viewed by this camp as a self-serving disingenuous assault designed to undermine Eritrea and not to enhance it. In short, this camp says: I DON’T TRUST ANYTHING COMING FROM THE USA (AND THE WEYANE).

(2) And, of course, there are the other various camps — some old ELFers trying to make a last stand against the aging EPLF generals, some die-hard regionalists seeking to score a point across, some hoping to settle personal vendettas, some simply building castles in the sky and dreaming of a constitutional democracy functioning in dirt poor Eritrea and some simply angry that there is no change in Eritrea. As we know, a number of these ended up falling into the laps of the Weyane and the CIA stupidly thinking that these enemies of Eritrea would introduce democracy in Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea border has been one of highly fortified border in the world for a long time, for about 12 years. This area is one of the corner of the world where war can be spark anytime and can get out of control. A lot of observers and journalist has been calling the area one of highly militarized border of the world. Eritrea has been amassing its army in the area and Ethiopia has been doing likewise. An Eritrean official going out and telling the world as if something new is happening in this part of the world is mockeries. Eritrea however being on the receiving end of human right commissions verdict has to come up with some kind of excuse to justify its crime against humanity against its own people. To do so , Eritrea has been pushing Ethiopia to start war with Eritrea so that Eritrea can have some justification for its crime and the blame would go to Ethiopia if Ethiopia takes actions therefore Eritrea has been for war very recently than ever to get off the hook from UN verdict. Ethiopia has been a scapegoat in most cause for anything Eritrea and Eritreans miss-handling of their issues on local or international stage. It is not Ethiopia but Eritrea, rather, pushing Ethiopia to go war in order for Eritrea to present itself as a victim on the international stage as Eritrea is pressed by UN Human right Commission for crime against humanity. After waiting patiently for more than ten years for Eritrea to go away without any bloodshed, I don’t see any reason as to why for Ethiopia to start a war at this junction when Eritrea is on its last adventure to death row. I personally believe the Eritrean leaders not only lost in governing but also they don’t have any diplomatic luster to convince anyone in their argument.

Erta, I did not know Hailemariam is in Zimbabwe? How soon did you forget that you were cheering when your buffoon was threatening an all out war? The time has come for reckoning and will show you what we mean.

We, the undersigned civil society organisations (CSOs), write to express our grave concern about the Eritrean Government’s continued and egregious violations of human rights. We urge your delegation to co-sponsor a resolution renewing the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea and supporting the establishment of robust accountability mechanisms to facilitate access to justice to the victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity in Eritrea during the 32nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC).

The mandate of the UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) was established at the 26th session of the UN HRC with a view to assess human rights violations documented by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea. [1] The CoI’s mandate was extended at the 29th session and instructed to “investigate systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in Eritrea with a view to ensuring accountability, including where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.”[2]

On 8 June 2016, the CoI released its second report, which states that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in Eritrea since 1991,” and that Eritrean government officials are responsible for crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, other inhumane acts, persecution, rape and murder. [3]

The CoI further found that there has been no change in Eritrea’s national service policy since the CoI’s establishment in 2014, which includes the use of conscripts to carry out non-military work, including for State-owned and other enterprises. The CoI secured evidence that reprisals, including extrajudicial executions, for evasion of conscription remain rampant. Most recently, on 3 April 2016, armed forces opened fire in the centre of the capital Asmara, killing an unconfirmed number of young conscripts, who were being transferred from Tessney to Massawa, and attempted to visit their families while in Asmara.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, an estimated 5,000 Eritreans flee the country every month as a result of the dire human rights situation, some risking their lives to escape to Europe despite the dangers and obstacles they face in obtaining asylum.

Since June 2014, the Eritrean Ministry of Information has refused to cooperate with the CoI while publicly claiming that the CoI’s research constitutes a “campaign of unwarranted witch-hunting of Eritrea by an entity which has clearly opted to instrumentalise human rights to serve political agendas.”[4] In June 2015, the UN HRC’s President condemned attacks and intimidation perpetrated against members of the CoI during their mission to Geneva.[5]

In light of the lack of adequate national mechanisms to address the CoI findings and the Government of Eritrea’s claim that the report’s findings are “extreme and unfounded charges with no solid and legal evidence to support its conclusion,”[6] it is incumbent upon the international community, including the UN HRC, to facilitate access to justice for the victims of the Eritrean Government’s grave and systematic violations of international human rights law, including those amounting to crimes against humanity.

– Renews the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea for one year; provides the mandate holder with the necessary human and financial resources; and includes in her mandate the promotion of and reporting on the implementation of the CoI’s recommendations;

– Supports the establishment of a structure by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with a protection and promotion mandate, to assist in ensuring accountability for human rights violations in Eritrea, especially where such violations amount to crimes against humanity;

– Requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to report regularly on the situation of human rights in Eritrea; and

– Transmits the report of the CoI to the UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council, and the UN Secretary-General.

I am laughing uncontrollably not only on this stupid so called Eritrean refugees but on weyane’s stupid creativity. This picture is taken at one of the weyane run refugee camps and the regime force everyone to get shaved as a sign of defiance against the Eritrean government and as a way of expressing support to the COI report. hahahahahaha But isn’t shaving a sign of imprisonment in that god forsaken woyane land? It is telling this stupid pigs that they are its prisoners for life. Welcome to reality dogs.